WNYT.com

911 dispatcher helps Michigan man deliver baby

(AP) ANN ABROR, Mich. - A woman who didn’t expect to give birth until mid-July delivered a healthy baby girl along a Michigan roadway with help from her husband and coaching from a 911 dispatcher.

Nicole Culwell, of Howell, was heading to St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital on Monday with her husband, Matthew, when she realized she wouldn’t make it in time. So her husband pulled over along U.S. 23 in the Ann Arbor area, and Susannah was born, AnnArbor.com reported.

"He was great and stayed calm about it," Nicole Culwell said of her husband. "I don’t even really remember her being born. I just remember holding her after and patting her back to make sure she was breathing."

The Culwells were about 10 minutes from the hospital when they stopped, and a 911 dispatcher talked them through the delivery.

"You can see the baby’s head coming out," Matthew Culwell tells dispatcher Carol Lellis at the beginning of the call, a recording of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

Later, he says: "Oh my God. The baby’s out. The baby’s out," before asking Lellis: "What do I do?"

Matthew Culwell said it was a "huge relief" to hear the cries of his new daughter along the roadside. Help soon showed up, and a firefighter cut the umbilical cord before Nicole Culwell and the baby were transported to the hospital with her husband driving behind them.

"It’s not often that you get to see your name as the person who made the delivery on your daughter’s birth certificate," Matthew Culwell said.

Lellis told WDIV-TV that hearing the cry was a relief to her as well, because that assured her the baby would be OK. She said she was honored to be part of the couple’s big day, and she wanted to wish the new parents good luck ahead.

Nicole Culwell said she was in denial earlier Monday about being so close to having her baby, because her due date was July 14. She said she went into labor around 5 a.m., and by 9:30 a.m. the couple decided to begin the roughly 40-minute drive to the hospital.